If refreshenv isn’t available, manually reload from registry (one-liner):

# Broadcast the setting change to all top-level windows $signature = @' [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Auto)] public static extern IntPtr SendMessageTimeout( IntPtr hWnd, uint Msg, IntPtr wParam, string lParam, uint fuFlags, uint uTimeout, out IntPtr lpdwResult); '@ $type = Add-Type -MemberDefinition $signature -Name "Win32" -Namespace "Utils" -PassThru $result = [IntPtr]::Zero $type::SendMessageTimeout([IntPtr]0xffff, 0x001A, [IntPtr]::Zero, "Environment", 2, 5000, [ref]$result) Use code with caution. Verification: Confirming the Reload

Until Microsoft implements a kernel-level "hot reload" for environment variables (a complex proposition with security implications), the manual reload remains a necessary skill. Here is the definitive hierarchy of solutions, ranked from least invasive to most desperate.

This led to the rise of community scripts and Stack Overflow snippets that replicate the logic of refreshenv . A simple function can be added to a PowerShell profile that grabs the registry values and updates the session scope ( Machine and User targets).